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U.S. President Donald Trump (3rd R), U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (4th L) and U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis (2nd L) attend a meeting with EU leaders at the European Council headquarters, in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

Donald Trump's first ever official visit to the Middle East and Europe was quite interesting, both for symbolism and substance. It took him to six different locations where he met America's closest allies and came face to face with some of the major strategic and political problems on his foreign policy radar.

At the surface level, it was a peaceful journey completed without any diplomatic glitch. The issue of the first lady and first daughter not covering their heads in Saudi Arabia but doing the opposite in the Vatican was more for the social media.

Similarly, we should forget Melania slapping Trump's hand. Though, some social media users tried to portray it as an indication of a "strain" in the personal relationship of the first couple.

Actually people expect gaffes from the likes of Trump and since he was rather meticulous throughout the tour – the credit goes to his team for not allowing him to go off script – those who have nothing to do but LOL on Facebook and Twitter were a touch unhappy. That is why the issue of covering heads and refusing to take Trump's hand were blown out of proportion.

On the most serious issue of foreign policy, there was not much for Mr. Trump to take back home. The bilateral engagement with Saudi Arabia was an exception. It produced agreements perhaps surpassing $300 billion in value, including the biggest arms deal of $110 billion. According to Donald Trump, it would create hundreds and thousands of jobs in America.

The Arab-Islamic-America summit could not make any substantial progress on the main problems of achieving peace in Syria and eliminating terrorism. Though, Trump had been gloating about this summit in Brussels and elsewhere. But the fact is that his interface with leaders of 50 plus Muslim leaders was just one way traffic. It was a Saudi show and that is it.

For example, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan, which is a leading Muslim country being the second biggest in population and the only nuclear power and the front line state in fighting terrorism, faced scathing criticism for failure to set a separate meeting with Trump or get due importance in the summit. Opposition parties also flayed Sharif for attending the conference that could widen the Sunni-Shia gulf and exasperate the situation in Pakistan which has the biggest Shia population after Iran.

In the holy land of Jerusalem, Trump tried to maintain the balance and met both Israeli and Palestinian leaders. He also did the right thing to keep mum about the shifting of embassy. But he failed to kick start the stalled peace process – the main challenge for any American leader.

With the Pope, Trump was respectful and it looked more an effort to broaden appeal among the hardcore religious groups in the United States than achieving any strategic objective. Pope Francis has known positions on issues, which mostly run contrary to Trump's views. And there was no indication that either of them was ready to modify the stance after the interaction.

The hotpot of the trip was his dressing-down speech at the NATO headquarters where he issued stern warning to the 28-member alliance on the issue of a defense budget. He did not hide his disdain for the group which in his own words is "obsolete."

The meeting increased the differences regarding several matters apart from the money matters. The central issue is Trump's optimistic attitude towards Russia, which is not shared by the majority of NATO leaders.

The last engagement with G-7 highly industrialized countries at Sicily in Italy also magnified differences on the key issue of global warming. Trump had called this issue as a "hoax" during elections while warning to pull out of the historic Paris Agreement, and has subsequently withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris Accord.

In a nutshell, Trump's visit added to the unease among key European allies in NATO and G-7. There is no forward movement on the issue of Syria or resumption of talks between Israel and Palestinians. The issue of terrorism also boomeranged as there were two cowardly attacks in Manchester and on Coptic Christians in Egypt during Trump's trip.

Sajjad Malik is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SajjadMalik.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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